Prime For Time Super

PRIME SUPER CEO LACHLAN BAIRD IS CHARGED WITH SECURING THE FUTURE FINANCIAL STABILITY OF AUSTRALIAN WORKERS, AND AS THE COMPANY CONTINUES TO EXPAND, HE SAYS IT’S WELL-EQUIPPED FOR THE JOB.

- Wendy Kay

It was minus 32 degrees Celsius in the wilds of Lapland where Lachlan Baird learned an interesting lesson in leadership. The Prime Super CEO was dog sledding with mates, all of them divided into teams following the musher ahead. But just like many a boardroom battle, brawling broke out between the canines over who should be top dog.

“You’re all supposed to stay in line, but every now and then a dog would overtake and they’d start to fight a bit,” Lachlan explains. “So, the guide tells us to stop while he slowly trudges back through the snow until he reaches the lead dog. Then he pulls its ear up and bites it.

“It was just to show the dog who was dominant and it’s always stuck in my mind,” Lachlan muses. “Imagine if humans did that.”

Imagine indeed. While Lachlan has never resorted to biting an adversary on the ear, he assumes he’s probably regarded by his 37 employees as a little emphatic. It’s a reputation born more out of having two decades of experience in the super industry, rather than any real desire to dominate.

“Yes, I’m reasonably demanding. I have my view on where things will have to go or how we get somewhere,” he admits. “But I think I’m fairly open and I do like to engage with people. I believe the best way to run a business is to have lots of smart people working with you. I always prefer to not just do whatever everybody else does, I’d rather have fresh thinking. So, I like to let people go for their life with an idea. But they also need to be able to convince me that it’s the right thing to do. If they can, I’m more than happy to make that happen.”